REGIONAL #84:  The draw for this regional is the kind of bracket I love--a real hodgepodge of teams from very different eras, boasting some of the greatest names in baseball history.  What Strat fan could resist watching Honus Wagner, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, and Jeff Bagwell try to duke it out for regional MVP?  The '58 Braves were the only pennant winners in this bunch (their second pennant in a row), but the two Astros teams bracketed their 2005 pennant winner, the 1965 Yankees followed a string of 5 straight NY pennants, the 1911 Pirates were two years removed from their great 1909 NL winners, and the 1988 Phillies were in a low spot exactly halfway between pennants in 1983 and 1993.  Although I think there is a good chance of an all-Astros final, I'm guessing that the '58 Braves will beat Astros teams twice in a row to win the regional.  The ELO rankings agree with that selection, but predict that the 1911 Pirates will reach the finals, which I think would require a big tournament from Wagner.

First round action

The 1965 Yankees won 77 games after five straight AL pennants and were the onset of a decline that wouldn't see them contend again for more than a decade; most of the famous names were there, but as evidenced by their injury rolls, their bodies were breaking down.  Their opponents, the 1911 Pirates, actually had twice as many Hall of Famers as the Yanks (Honus Wagner, joined by Max Carey, Fred Clarke, and Bill McKechnie, the latter mainly as a manager but playing 2b here) and won 85 games to finish in 3rd place in the NL.   Both teams sent 20-game winners to the mound, Mel Stottlemyre vs. Babe Adams, and Forbes Field was packed to the rafters to see this interesting matchup.  The Yanks struck first in the 3rd with an RBI double from Maris and a 2-run HR by Clete Boyer, and they added another run in the 6th with an RBI single from Elston Howard.   Stottlemyre was in fine form, but in the bottom of the 6th 38-year old Fred Clarke tripled, and a rattled Stottlemyre then grooved one to Chief Wilson, who put it into the stands for a 4-2 game.  And that was how it ended; Wagner was up twice as the potential game tying/winning run, but he couldn't reach base the entire game, and the Pirates head back into storage.

The 92-win 2004 Astros were one game away from the NL pennant and would capture the flag in the next season; the "Killer B's" of Bagwell, Biggio, Berkman and Beltran pollinated the offense while Oswalt and Clemens provided two dominating starters.  Their opponents, 104-loss 1949 Washington, was (as they say) first in war and peace, and last in the American League, as was typical, and I gave them zero chance against the powerful Astros.  So I wasn't surprised when the second batter of the game, Carlos Beltran, hit a solo shot to quickly put the Astros up 1-0.  But, I was surprised when the Senators responded in the 2nd with three squib hits off Oswalt and moved to a 2-1 lead.  That stood until the 5th inning, when the Astros batted around to score five, including a 3-run HR by Bagwell, and that was it for the Senators as Oswalt was in control for the remainder of the game.  The Astros move on with the 8-2 win, but in the process they managed to lose both Brad Ausmus and Morgan Ensberg to tournament-ending injuries.  In the process, I discovered that Houston had remarkably little bench depth, although a ton of relief pitching, and those injuries will pose a serious problem against an opponent more capable than these Senators.

Only two years after the team that won the previous first-round game, the 82-win 2006 Astros won 10 fewer games but were still dangerous; although Jeff Bagwell had retired and Beltran was gone, Lance Berkman had a monster year.  Although I had initially discounted their opponent, the 1934 Braves, they went 78-73 for a slightly better winning percentage than Houston, and Wally Berger's 34 HR was among the best in the NL that year.  However, it was the starting pitchers who dominated this game--Fred Frankhouse for the Braves, Roger Clemens for Houston.  Boston's Hal Lee hit a solo shot in the 1st for a quick lead, but Biggio matched with one of his own in the 2nd and it was 1-1 until the 6th, when Berkman misplayed a Marty McManus grounder to put the Braves up 2-1.  Berkman had a chance to atone in the 8th, with 2 out and one on, but Frankhouse whiffed him; the Astros only managed 5 hits against Frankhouse and the Braves eliminate Houston with the tight 2-1 victory.

The '58 Braves won 92 games and the NL with lots of offensive firepower from Aaron, Mathews, Adcock and Covington, and two 20-game winners in Spahn and Burdette.   They faced the '88 Phillies, who lost 96 games and finished last in the NL East, with a 38-year old Mike Schmidt in his last year as a full-time player.  The Braves thus looked like big favorites, and they went up 1-0 quickly when a Covington grounder scored Bruton in the top of the 1st.  However, the Phillies were not at all fooled by Warren Spahn, as they demonstrated a knack for finding Spahn's hits, including a Juan Samuel HR off Spahn' card in the 2nd that made it 2-1.  RBI singles from Covington and Crandall made it 3-2 in the top of the 4th, but in the bottom of the inning Philly DH Ron Jones doubled in two and it was 4-3, Phils.  An Eddie Mathews 2-run shot in the 7th gave the Braves the lead once again, and sent Kevin Gross to the showers, but a Mike Schmidt solo shot in the bottom of the inning tied it up and sent Spahn packing, with both starters recording identically bad pitching lines:  6.3 IP, 11 HA, 5 RA.  In the top of the 8th, a walk and a single off Philly reliever Greg Harris put runners on 1st and 3rd with one out and Schoendienst up; I brought in the infield to guard against the squeeze, and Schoendienst nails the gbA++ to put the Braves up 6-5.  Joey Jay and Humberto Robinson in relief prove more effective than Spahn, and the favored Braves escape with a hard-fought 6-5 win.

The survivors

The semifinal between the '65 Yankees and 2004 Astros featured a marquee pitching matchup of Whitey Ford vs. Roger Clemens, but it quickly became evident that this was not going to be a pitching duel when the Yanks rocked Clemens for 4 straight hits and 3 runs to lead off the top of the 1st.  In the bottom of the 1st, Berkman sent a solo shot into the Crawford boxes to narrow the gap, and then Clemens reeled off four straight perfect innings, while Mike Lamb (3b-5, playing for injured Morgan Ensberg) hit a three-run blast in the 3rd and the Astros had the 4-3 lead.  Doubles by Lamb and Kent in the 5th made it 6-3, and Ford was yanked in favor of Steve Hamilton, who the Astros never could touch.  Meanwhile, Mantle nailed a 2-run HR in the 6th and the Houston lead was down to 1, but Clemens finished things out with 3 hitless innings and the Astros head to the finals with a 6-5 win.  However, Houston loses SS-1 Adam Everett to a tournament-ending injury, joining Ensberg and Ausmus in that category and leaving the team wondering if they are karmically paying for the sins of a later Astros squad.

For this matchup, it was a certainty that the Braves were going to make the regional finals, but it remained to be seen if it would be the 1958 powerhouse or the 1934 upstarts.  A Joe Adcock HR put the '58s up 2-0 in the 2nd, but in the 4th Adcock misplays a Shanty Hogan flyball into a triple and the score is knotted at 2-2.  In the 6th, '34 starter Ed Brandt walks two in a row, then allows a long single to Schoendienst and the '58s regain a 3-2 lead.  The '34s lead off the 7th with a single, and the '58s eye Joey Jay in the bullpen, but decide to give 20-game winner Lew Burdette another batter to work himself out of the inning.  A tough grounder to Johnny Logan is converted into a DP, and that would be it for the '34s.  With two out in the 9th, the '34s big weapon Wally Berger was the last hope, but a suspect pitch from Burdette fooled Berger and the popout ended the 3-2 game and send the '58 Braves into the finals, even though they could only muster 6 hits against Brandt.

He didn't get injured!

The finals for Regional #84 matching the '58 Braves against the 2004 Astros were a rarity--a matchup that I accurately predicted, involving what I figured to be the two best teams in the regional.  As a pennant winner, the '58 Braves would be favored regardless, but the fact that the Astros had lost one-third of their starting lineup to injury and that they had almost no starting pitching beyond their already used "big 2" of Oswalt and Clemens compounded their challenge.  However, as he had in the semifinals, Lance Berkman hit a solo HR in the 1st inning to put the Astros up quickly, and in the 2nd .210 hitting injury replacement catcher Raul Chavez doubled home injury replacement Vizcaino to make it 2-0.  A 2-run shot by Biggio in the 7th chased Milwaukee starter Carl Willey, and the Astros were getting the champagne ready, but then Jeff Bagwell went down to injury and the Astros were down to the dregs on the bench to try to finish out the game.  An Eddie Mathews triple in the bottom of the 7th narrowed it to 4-2 and Astros starter Pete Munro gave way to closer Brad Lidge.  Hank Aaron hit a solo shot in the 8th to make it 4-3 and, true to form, Lidge was making Astros fans mighty nervous, but Lidge retired the Braves in order in the 9th and the Astros claimed the regional with the 4-3 upset win.   I am fairly confident that this is the first time in this tournament that a team had won a regional with four members of its starting lineup lost to injury.

Interesting card of Regional #84:  When you need that strikeout in the late innings with the tying run on 3rd, this card is a pretty good option to select.  In 2004, Lidge truly was "lights out"; in the 7-game 2004 NLCS that Houston lost to the Cardinals, Lidge pitched in 4 games with 1 win and 2 saves, an 0.00 ERA with a 0.375 WHIP, and 14 K's in 8 innings pitched.  That all changed the next year in Game 5 of the NLCS rematch against the Cardinals--and I was there, deep in the right-center grandstands.  Thus, I got to witness Lidge entering the game to try to record the save in the 9th and send the Astros to the Series for the first time in their history.  Lidge struck out the first two batters, then allowed a single and a walk to bring up Albert Pujols.  Pujols, of course, then hit a shot over everything in LF that I still don't think has come down; the blow shattered Lidge's confidence and he was never the same after it.